White rabbit and caterpillar
by Aerith1992
Summary: Ally F. Jones gets a new punk neighbour. She can't help falling for him. Fem!America/England  written for the USUK Secret Santa 2011


"It's late, it's late!" I exclaimed like the White Rabbit in _Alice in Wonderland_. But I was Ally F. Jones, super-heroine and the most badass American in the world, who was running late for my chemistry class. I didn't want to miss it, since that day we were going to do a really awesome experiment. At least I wouldn't be decapitated by the order of the Queen of Hearts.  
>The elevator of course wasn't working, so I had to go down the stairs from my student apartment on the third floor. As I reached the last steps, I missed one of them and I fell.<br>I closed my eyes, waiting for impact. It was when I didn't bump on the floor that I opened them to find out that I was lying on another person. He was a blond guy with impressive eyebrows and a lot of piercings. But most mesmerizing were his eyes: green like the leaves and the grass in spring. I immediately thought they were the most beautiful eyes I'd ever seen. I recognized the boy as the new neighbor, since my friend Kiku had met him before and described him to me, although he hadn't told me about the eyebrows. How couldn't he, they were gigantic! If I was the White Rabbit, his eyebrows could be the Caterpillar!  
>At first he watched me in surprise, but, when I didn't move off him, his face settled into a scowl.<br>Laughing, I got up and helped him. He seemed surprised by my strength.  
>"I'm sorry! I was late and..."<br>"It's ok. Watch your step in the future, though," he said seriously.  
>"I'll take you out to eat as an apology!" I exclaimed without thinking and started running to the lesson. I was so late! "Be here at seven!" I said looking back to him and waving.<br>If he replied, I didn't hear it. I was too far. I wouldn't have to deal with the Queen of Hearts, but my professor was as bad tempered as her when someone was late or didn't study.

Arthur Kirkland was a strange guy. He always had that "get away from me" aura, but when you knew him well he was a witty, always-irritated-by-something guy. His aura didn't scare me at all when we first met at the stairs, thanks to my inability to read the atmosphere.  
>He was smoking at the entrance of the building that evening when I arrived, acting like he wasn't waiting but just passing the time. I crinkled my nose; I hated that smell. He was dressed very casually: a black leather jacket on a green T-shirt, a pair of skinny jeans with holes and chains and black boots.<br>He mumbled something like "You're late" when he saw me, but I didn't pay attention. Maybe I was a little late, but that happens if you make your roommate's nail polish fall on your favorite jacket because you stumbled on some lame book!  
>… ok, maybe I was a little clumsy, though.<br>"You came!" I exclaimed happily, jumping and accidentally hitting him on the nose. I hadn't been sure if he would come until I saw him. My friend Francine (maybe she could be the Cheshire Cat) always said I was too vivacious to get a boyfriend. Oh well, I didn't want one.  
>"I wouldn't be a gentleman if I left a lady alone," he replied, massaging his nose.<br>"Isn't it strange, a punk who behaves like a gentleman?" I teased him.  
>"I am only when with ladies," he replied with a smirk.<br>I offered him my hand to shake it, saying, "I'm Ally F. Jones, super-heroine!"  
>He scoffed, but shook it anyway. "Arthur Kirkland."<br>He was really a gentleman with ladies. When I took him to McDonald's he didn't say a word (he glared at the yellow M, though) even if, as he told me much later, he hated it with a passion. How he could do that was a mystery to me. He didn't complain even when I accidentally spilled my Coke on him (he took tea, by the way) while talking. But, when he was with boys, especially Francine's cousin, Francis, he would take every occasion to yell after him or punch him or go to have a drink together. I never understood if they hated each other or if they were friends.  
>As I learnt that evening, he was a Literature student and didn't have many friends. Francine, who knew him rather well, told me when I got home and I had to tell her everything. Arthur hadn't talked much. Later in our relationship he corrected me a lot about my grammar "It's learnt, not learned!"<p>

I started to wave at him (I don't know if he didn't see me or if he was ignoring me) every time I saw him and sometimes went to say hi and chatter a bit. The first times he would roll his eyes and ask me if I didn't have other things to do than annoy him. I always replied that he wasn't being gentlemanly. He seemed to accept my presence with time, though.  
>It started a strange friendship. We sometimes went out together when I invited him and surprisingly he sometimes invited me, and he started to get more comfortable and less stiff with me. He started to scold me about stupid things and I ignored them or found them amusing.<br>We would hang out at one of Arthur's favorite pubs and sit at the same table in the corner. We talked about what had happened recently, music, and he would talk about literature and I about chemistry and some awesome experiments I wanted to do even if he didn't understand a lot.  
>With time he opened up to me, and told me about his family problems, trusting me enough not to tell others. His brothers took every good occasion to tease him. His father had always been too strict with him and did not approve of his life choices (he wanted him to be a lawyer) and his mother was too weak to object to his behavior in any way. He moved in a student apartment to get away from that atmosphere. That was when I met him.<br>In half a year we became inseparable. The table in the corner became our table. I liked spending time with him and he did too, even if he didn't want to admit it. He had many things to do: going to lessons, studying (he needed a scholarship) and a part-time job and not much time. I had things to do, too, so we had little time to spend together and we took advantage of it as much as we could.  
>One time I convinced him to go to an arcade together and try the game where you have to dance. He looked so clumsy (more than me!) and so embarrassed that I couldn't help but laugh. He started to curse at "that bloody thing" when he didn't earn many points, exclaiming that was the machine's fault. As revenge, he took me to a poetry club, where I had to sit and listen. Arthur didn't let me talk to him when someone was reading their works and glanced at me with a smirk. Strangely it was fun, because of Arthur's fun comments about what we had listened to.<br>We also started to text when I was on vacation with my family at home. Of course, even in his texts, full of commas and full stops, he would scold me for my grammar. However I missed him a lot. I couldn't have been happier than when I had to return at the campus. Everybody could tell that, even in his shy way of showing his feelings, Arthur was happy, too. He even told me those exact words one night, when he was too drunk to be in control of what he was saying.

It would have gone forever like that if not for Francine.  
>One evening we were eating the crepes she had made and talking. When I stopped talking to take a bite of my full-of-chocolate crepe she took advantage of the moment of silence.<br>"You're not going out with Arthur today?"  
>"He's working," I answered, concentrating on the fantastic taste of the dessert. Francine was an awesome cook!<br>"You're inseparable, aren't you? People are calling you 'the couple'."  
>"Really? I didn't know that," I said, a little surprised.<br>Francine giggled. "Of course you won't notice it. Arthur's all red when is with you!"  
>I watched her perplexed. Did I give Arthur the flu? I've never had it! So if he wasn't ill, how did that matter? It had to be a Francine joke. I smiled and laughed.<br>"You're just pulling my legs!"  
>Francine sighed. "You don't understand ma chere. How do you feel about Arthur?"<br>"He's my best friend," I immediately answered with a knowing smile. "He's not heroic like me, though, so he's my sidekick!"  
>"Think about it, Ally. I think you just don't realize it," she said with a wink and went to her bedroom.<br>"What don't I realize?" I asked her (more like yelled).  
>From her room I could only hear, "think!"<br>I ate my crepe silently, trying to understand how I felt about him.  
>Of course I loved spending time with him, unless he wanted to go drinking (he got drunk very fast) and I wished it to be more. I missed him when we couldn't see each other or wouldn't because of a heated discussion (and we had a lot of them!). Now that I thought about it I always acted clingy with him and loved that embarrassed expression he made every time I did it.<br>Maybe the expression wasn't the only thing I loved. I loved his cleverness and his bad temper I always made fun of. How he would deny uselessly he did care for me. How he would correct me every time I called him "Artie". His strong belief in Fays and unicorns and magic. His punk-ish attitude. His British accent. Those big eyebrows I'd grown so fond of. Those green eyes. That little smile he had when we were together.  
>Than it came to me. I loved him.<p>

I saw Arthur sitting on a bench smoking. I knew he was waiting for me so we could hang out together. I became red just thinking of what I had realized. I loved him.  
>"Hey Artie!" I exclaimed as I reached him.<br>He saw me and blew out his cigarette saying, "Arthur."  
>I thought it was an unconditioned reflex of his by now and I laughed.<br>"Is everything ok?" he asked.  
>"I dunno why ya asking me Artie?"<br>"It's Arthur," he said, rolling his eyes, but there was fondness in his expression, too . "I won't speak about your atrocious grammar, because something's happened."  
>I watched him, surprised. "How can you tell?"<br>"In the seven months that we've known each other, how can I not tell? You haven't laughed as loud as usual so something is on your mind."  
>I sat near him and watched the clear sky. "Francine made me realize something," I said.<br>Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Arthur doing the same.  
>"Oh, the bloody Frog's cousin. She made you realize something? What a miracle!"<br>"Oh, shut up!"  
>"What great new things do you know now?"<br>"One. Arthur I... You know we are the absolutely most awesome best friends in the world and you would be my sidekick if we were superheroes but you wouldn't be as badass as me. Or you could be the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland or maybe the Queen of Hearts when you are angry…"  
>He put a hand on my mouth until I stopped blabbing and, even if he looked a little upset about what I had told him, he said in a composed tone, "calm down! Breathe deeply and then tell me."<br>I did as he said and told him, "I love you, Artie."  
>Silence was not what I expected. He didn't even correct me about his name. He only watched me, as his eyes widened. Then, his face became red as a smile started appearing, little at first.<br>He took my hand and murmured, "I love you, too."  
>We sat there hand in hand and watched the sky happily. Something new had started.<p> 


End file.
